A tale of Metal and Fire
by Kanalith
Summary: The story of Dell Conagher, the Engineer and Pyro Flames, the Pyro
1. Dell and Pyro Flames

Dell Conagher felt lonely when he was a single child and he always wanted a little brother. But he in the city with his parents and grandfather, Radigan and it went well for them until Dell went to first grade, the age where the Conaghers would let their children walk to school and back by themselves. This day was a fateful day for the young boy found the greatest friend a boy can have.

"Hey everyone look it's Conagher!" said a bully at school "Oh? Is he going to build another toy gun to shoot us with?" the other kids started laughing at him? Or are you going to hit us with your little baby wrench?" The kids laughed harder and then the soft spoken Dell then said "Why don't we just get along before any of us gets hurt?" Then the kids started laughing harder until Dell brought out a small pistol made out of legos from his pocket and was fully functional and shot it straight over the bully's head and then the bully started to cry and Dell flung the pistol back into his pocket. The teacher who was slightly deaf just muttered something about kids playing too loud.

After school Dell had to buy some stuff for his old man and grandfather and went past the junk yard and collected some scraps for them but as he went along in the junk yard with his little high tech wagon he saw a small basket. Dell decided to see what it was and saw a small baby who's face looked horrifying to see but Dell decided the baby might be a boy, a note, a small lighter and small gas mask. Dell quickly reached for the lighter but took pity on the small baby and put the basket in his wagon and thought that he should put the mask on the baby.

When he got home he decided to try to keep the child secret but as soon as he got in his old man looked over at the wagon and saw the basket and the small baby with the mask and saw the baby playing with the lighter. Dell's old man picked up the baby and said to Dell "Where did you find this baby?" Dell looked at his feet and said "At the junk yard." Dell's old man then said "This kind of baby is called a crack baby, a baby who's mother is addicted to coca and the mothers usually don't want them. And why is that baby playing with a lighter." Radigan then got up from his chair and went to Dell and said "I think you might be able to keep him. You can adopt him as your brother.

The next day the Conaghers brought home the small baby as their child. The family tried to name him but it was hard, Radigan suggested Pie Man, Dell's old man suggested Macarana Delgato and Dell's mom suggested they should have bbq for dinner. Then Dell thought up the best name Pyro Flames. For then next ten years Dell trained to be the next greatest inventor and Pyro Flames spent the next ten years working to be the greatest firestarter ever and surpass Emperor Nero and the cow that started the great fire of Chicago.


	2. The shop

Dell soon built up his own auto shop and started improving cars country wide, no problem was too big for him and his sidekick, Pyro Flames who knew everything from which gas was best for the car to welding and the two started to bring in the big bucks to their family, until the accident.

"Pyro get me that wrench over there!" shouted Dell over the sounds of metal being welded by Pyro who held the welding torch in one hand as the other felt around for his adopted brother's lucky wrench. "Mmmmph!" Pyro exclaimed as he tossed the wrench and Dell caught it and started tuning up a car for a test drive. "Hey Pyro lets take five and give this puppy a test drive!" said Dell and Pyro threw his torch away which lodged itself near a gas tank and then tore off his welding mask to reveal his normal gas mask. Dell then started up the car "Let's drive!" he then stated up the engine and the two took off. After a while they heard a boom then Pyro looked back and then exclaimed through his mask "Mmmmmmmmmmmmph!" then pointed at the shop and Dell stopped the car and turned around and stared at where their shop had been and saw all he and Pyro worked on set up in flames. "What?" said Dell and then he turned the car around and drove to the scene and Dell jumped out to try to put out the fire. "What are you waiting for Pyro? Our entire shop is burning!" shouted Dell at the little ten year old Pyro who was sitting still. Then Pyro saw small opening and ran to a nearby firetruck and grabbed a fire axe and charged head first into the blazing shop. Dell looked at where his brother had ran into and wept because Pyro most likely couldn't survive a giant auto shop gas fire. He wept for his brother and for how he treated him a moment ago which probably caused his brother to do this. After a couple minutes Dell's old man, his mom and Radigan pulled up in a car and tried to ask him where his brother was but Dell only pointed towards the fire and the family started to weep for the small child of fire who charged head first into the blaze.

Inside the blazing shop Pyro saw a couple figures inside trapped under a giant lollipop while bubbles were radiating from the ground and then he saw what was blocking him from the people a couple bubble radiating pieces of licorice which Pyro slashed with his giant lollipop and the he threw his lollipop away and pushed the licorice away and then jumped over them and dodged a falling bubblegum and attempted to lift up the lollipop but then he saw a figure on the other side of the lollipop who looked ripped so Pyro went to that side and lifted up that part to help that man up who then proceeded to help Pyro lift up the lollipop then a small piece of chocolate radiating with bubbles fell on Pyro's back which burnt his back and then he winched from pain but then the man helped the others out and then the man shouted something to the others and then two of the people helped Pyro up and then there was a sudden burst of bubbles that grew under his feet which burnt his body more. Then bubbles started to radiat from his clothes and then the man threw some dirt on his clothes and the bubbles extinguished. They kept trudging towards the fire's exit.

Soon after a while Pyro slowly wobbled out of the fire with a couple people helping him out. Then Pyro collapsed tired on the ground his mask slightly torn, his clothes tattered and his body scorched. His brother ran to his side and saw all of his burn marks on his body and Dell cried "Why did you go to the shop?" and then Pyro weakly held up his brother's lucky wrench which was slightly burned. Then Pyro fainted as his brother cried over his brother's unconscious body.

Then the ripped man Pyro saw stood above him and Dell and then said in a thick Australian accent "You're brother is a hero young boy. What's your name son?" then Dell said "Dell Conagher and he is Pyro Flames." Then the Australian man said "So this is your shop?" gesturing to the flaming shop and then Dell nodded "My name is Saxton Hale owner and CEO of Mann co. I'm searching for animals all over the globe to punch mainly exotic species. I'm going on an adventure through these deserts…" Then he looked up and saw Radigan and then said "Hale, Mann co." then Hale nodded and Radigan continued "Your superiors told me that you weren't going to come after me after their… you know." Then Saxton said "We'll discuss that later. Not here." Then Saxton tipped his hat at Pyro and then walked off into the deserts as a woman started to trail him.

"We have to get Pyro to a hospital." Said Radigan and soon a young man with gloves and a blood stained lab coat stepped out of a ambulance and hauled a table to put Pyro on. "Scheize! He might make it!" then the ambulance pulled away.


	3. After collage

It's been about twenty years since the shop had burnt down and Dell had finally passed his eleventh time at collage. He hadn't flunked out he had just went back to collage until he had hit a number of masters degrees that would please him. On the other hand Pyro had been savaging for jobs while his adopted brother was there, there was too many he could barely count them all, he had worked as a fireman, a waiter, a chef, a biker and his favorite was being a hired mercenary. He met up with his clients and would be paid to kill people. His favorite part was burning the houses, at the end of each job he burnt down the victim's house and always got away with it. While he walked out of the fires of the smoldering houses people who say he looked demonic and evil, but to him all he saw was rainbows and butterflies. During the last days of Dell's collage days Pyro saved up money for Dell's graduation and bought less fuel for his flamethrower but on the last day before the graduation Pyro realized that his work as a mercenary could damage his relationship with his brother. Pyro then took his flare gun, flamethrower and axe and brought them out to the car which he used and cut out a hole underneath his seat, big enough for his weapons. Little did he know that the place he cut would soon be how Dell would find out about the mercenary business.

Dell took one last look at his dorm and then looked at all the stuff he had built when he came to that school. He thought of how the dean joked about him becoming a teacher there one day and then he went over to each invention and pressed a button on its side and the inventions folded themselves into tiny storage cubes the size of a fuzzy die for a car. Then he started putting them into his five suitcases and then started putting his wrench and other tools into his toolbox and folded his clothes and put them into his suitcase. Then he made his way to graduation.

Pyro was running a bit late he put a suit on, curtsy of one of his targets along with his money and drove his van over to the collage when he got there he noticed he still had his mask on and took it off and threw it into the back of the van. His face was blackened with soot but pale. He had golden blonde hair and blue eyes. He then took out a mechanical object in his pocket suffocating from lack of air and put it in his mouth and breathed in and out. He walked over to his brother's dorm only to find that Dell wasn't there then he made his way to the graduation and saw his dad and Radigan who now was very old.

Soon after the graduation Dell went over to Pyro and said "I'm going to need help with my bags." The two then went to Dell's dorm to get the bags, there was one more left and Pyro volunteered to grab the bag. As Pyro was on his way there he bumped into a student and her bags fell. Pyro then said "Here let me help you and then helped her up and picked up her bags and gave them to her. The student had her hair wrapped up in two buns and was wearing her glasses sort of crooked. The woman said "Sorry for bumping into you." Then Pyro saw her name tag "Pauling? Am I right?" and then the woman said "How did you…" and Pyro said "We worked together in a restaurant." And Pauling said "Who are you?" Pyro then said "I'm not wearing my gas mask now but if you saw me with it you might know." And Pauling said "Oh your Pyro. Nice bumping into you again but I have to go work an internship for my adopted mom." Pyro then thought about what she said and then said "You're adopted?" and then Pauling replied "Yeah. Sort of depressing at times." And Pyro exclaimed "I'm also adopted." But then Pauling was about to say something when a tall figure with big hair came in and said with a booming voice "Pauling stop making friends and lets go." As the woman left Pauling said "Here's where I work you can find me at." She gave Pyro a card and then left. Pyro looked down at the card and it said 'Mann. Co Reliable Excavation Demolition. Hiring mercenaries.' Then Pyro thought about what the card said as he went and got Dell's suitcase.

When Pyro got back Dell was playing his guitar and then he looked up and said "Where were you? It's been like twenty minutes." Pyro then threw the suitcase into the back and said "Talking". They drove to Pyro's apartment and Pyro just put back on his mask. The ride back was terrible for Pyro since his flamethrower was propped in an odd angle so it hurt his ass but he held it in for the journey home.

When they got to Pyro's apartment, Dell hopped right onto the couch and fell asleep, this provided Pyro the perfect time to make more money doing mercenary work. As he left to his next client's house on his old motorcycle Dell woke up and went to the fridge for some beer but when he saw there was no beer he jumped inside Pyro's van and drove to the store but he noticed something strange with his seat so when he got to the store he checked under the seat and found what Pyro had been trying to hide except the flamethrower. Dell then stood shocked as the remembered in collage, reading the papers about a masked mercenary who sets houses ablaze and then compared the what he read with Pyro. He jumped back into the van and went back to the house just as Pyro was pulling in. And when Dell hopped out of the car Pyro was taking off his mask and Dell demanded "Whats going on!" and Pyro had no choice and told him everything and then expected Dell to hit him but Dell just said "Sounds fun! When do we get started!"


	4. First mission

Dell waited inside his little workshop tinkering and Pyro was tuning up car at the little shop they owned but underneath the shop was a different story, a vast room filled with cabinets of fuel, bullets and scraps of metal and lines and lines of flamethrowers, shotguns, pistols, axes, wrenches, bombs and others even a machine gun. At the end of the room stood a desk where papers were stacked, the papers were wanted signs; they would capture the person and claim the money for them. The shop was peaceful until the door opened, Dell looked up as a woman walked in and said in her booming voice"What can I do for you? Oil? Tune up?" and the woman said "I want you to kill my husband." And Dell replied "How much you offering." And the woman said "Is 5 thousand enough?" and Pyro stuck his head out of the garage and noticed the woman was the same as who was with Pauling during collage and Pyro went back to work. Then the woman said "His name is Thomas Hugginsworth." And Dell started laughing choking on his words and after about thirteen seconds of continuous laughing he said "That's a hilarious name." and then the woman said "That's why a want a 'divorce' permanently." As she was saying that Pauling ran into the room carrying a bag of money and then the woman said "Throw it on the desk." And Pauling hurled the bag and some of the money spilled out like light and Dell started to smile.

Later that day they found specifications of Thomas, who is fat and insane. Pyro and Dell tried to decide how to kill him they came up with Dell running to all the other entrances and putting up sentries there while Pyro would set fire to the front of the house. When they got to the house they realized the mistakes, the house was mostly stone, only the roof and doors were wood. Also the guy carried around a big ass shotgun, they quickly changed plans. Pyro took out his axe and started looking for wood, Dell on the other hand would be setting up barricades on the doors.

Pyro came back panting, and then said "Mmmmph." And Dell said "What?" Pyro briefly pulled up his mask and said "No wood." Dell then noticed the napalm grenades on Pyro's mercenary suit and said "Toss me a napalm." Pyro looked at Dell confused and passed his brother one, Dell the proceeded to bite off the top of the bomb and chucked it into an open window. The two brothers ran away laughing about how it was an easy 5 thousand and hid behind a car.

They two waited for five minutes before looking, Thomas was in the window holding up a defuse napalm. Dell then yelled "Dammit!" Pyro started raging and then he threw his axe, but he didn't notice how it hit Thomas smack in the forehead. Thomas' body fell out of the window and splattered on ground. About ten minutes later they noticed that Thomas had been killed and hi fived. Pyro went over to the body and wrenched his axe out of the fat man's skull while Dell broke out a six pack of beer and then Pyro did some improvements to Thomas' body to show to the woman, cut off Thomas' head.

When they got to Mann. co the two were wasted from the beer and the woman was waiting, Pyro slapped the head onto her desk and said "It's done." The woman then said "Thank you with that job." She threw them and extra thousand also. Then Pyro remembered the card and took it out and slapped it on the desk. The woman looked at it and said "You sure you want to." Dell was too drunk to respond so Pyro nodded.


	5. Grandpa's Machine

Dell was clearing up from his last hangover after they had had a rough encounter with some drunk guy who called himself Coach, he was a bit younger than Dell but they talked a bit and drunk until a bar fight broke out. During that point in time Pyro tried to restrain Dell but that didn't stop Dell from knocking some hillbilly out of the park. Soon after they wound up back at their house, a small workshop on the edge of the Mann .co. They lived next to a few guys including their old man who worked at the time for Mann .co too.

Pyro looked out the window and saw their neighbor, Greg, some old guy who carried around a crap load of explosives everywhere he went. Pyro waved but Greg just stared away and walked to his car and drove to Mann .co. Pyro had met him before and he seemed like a good guy, he, Greg, Dell and another guy named Albert used to play poker on some nights. Albert also worked for Mann .co as their "heavy" but that didn't stop them from hanging out.

At the time Dell was working on the parts of the facility that needed work. Every now and then he would do a job for some of his employers, Pauling's adoptive mother, Helen, Blutarch and Redmond and that Australian guy that Pyro saved. But when he was called in today it seemed more important than everything else. He waited outside of Blutarch's office in his blue clothes for the occasion and looked up and said to Blutarch's assistant "Say umm…. Aint that an original Kicasso?" and the assistant said "What an excellent eye you have Mr. Conagher" shepaused and then continued "It is. From his 'Hunted in the jungle' period, I believe." Dell then said while going to his employer's office "Why don't you go ahead and call me Dell, Ma'am. 'Mister Conagher' was my grandfather's name." She then said "I rememeber"

She then asked him a question about how much did he know about Radigan's relationship with the Manns, he only answeredthat this is when he first heard of it but deep down he knew it was a lie. His childhood, when the shop burned, the hospital. But he kept going and she told him what had happened then and he went inside of his employer's office.

Blutarch then spoke to Dell about beating his brother in some contest but in truth, Dell wasn't interested in hearing the last hundred year of Blutarch and his Brother's feud with mercenaries, including Dell's hero, Nicola Tesla. Then Dell caught the words "Fix it." And Dell started talking but Blutarch wasn't taking it and said "What is you had access to your Grandfather's blueprints?" and Dell said "Well that's a different story. Heh. Not much hope'a that, though the old man had 'em-" he was cut off but Blutarch dropping blueprints in front of him and finished "-buried with him" then Blutarch went on, on how he looted Radigan's corpse and spent a small fortune trying to decipher the blueprints.

Then Blutarch went silent. Dell then asked the assistant what happened and she just replied "Oh hes just dead" Then the machine whizzed to life and Blutarch lunged out of his chair and grabbed Dell by the overalls and said "Every day I'm dead a little longer Mr. Conagher. I have seen the other side. Theres nothing there. FIX. THIS. MACHINE." Then Dell replied "I appreciate that you're my employer and an old man besides… but if you don't take your god damned hands off of me I will break you in half." The old man let go of him and Dell walked out with the blueprints.

Later that night Dell studied the blueprints. But underneath it was something he didn't expect. He knew his grandpa prized Australium for its power to boost mental capacity but he knew how his grandpa had so much of it. Underneath was a map of the locations of all the Australium caches.


	6. The Break In

It had been a year since he had fixed the machine but Dell still couldn't get enough money to go to Australia and claim the wealth of the land. So in the meantime he was working on a car, the Turbo X 5000, the fastest car ever. The pipes and gears on the bottom were in check and the handle was fine.

Pyro on the other hand was holding his axe. He looked around and saw nothing but heard a noise and slowly said "Dell we got company." Dell then said "Pyro go git 'em." And Pyro picked up his axe and looked around and noticed his new shoes that he bought this month were gone and he said "Dell, he has the shoes." Dell muttered under his voice and said "Achilles! Where are you, you son of a bitch!" while picking up his shotgun and then cocked it. "I know you're here!" Pyro said "Achilles! Get out here! Give me back my god damn toothpaste!"

Pyro busted down the front door and said "I'm going to gut you Achilles!" but only saw a young boy, he knew this was one of Achilles' tricks and then the boy ran. Pyro ran also and the boy did run really fast. As the boy approached the fence Pyro was hot on his trail until the boy drank a soda then back flipped over the fence. Pyro climbed up and jumped right in front of the boy. Pyro swung his axe but the boy dogded and kicked it away. Pyro took out his flare gun and shot at the boy but the boy dodged every one. The boy then took out a few sodas and drank them and then in a flash he disappeared leaving a sandstorm in his path.


End file.
